


In Which Davey is Gay™

by feathertail, FeralCreed



Series: RP Fics [3]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Davey is a linesman, Highschool AU, It's not really referenced that much so it shouldn't be too confusing but ask if you need, Jack plays rugby, M/M, Rugby, Soulmate AU, sport au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-01-28 21:01:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12615416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feathertail/pseuds/feathertail, https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeralCreed/pseuds/FeralCreed
Summary: Davey's long time crush accidentally crushes him (literally), with an elbow to the abdomen, resulting in a purpling bruise right over his soulmark. When it's still there, still as vivid a blue as the first few days, and exactly the shape of his soulmark, Davey comes to terms with his dream coming true. Will Jack?Soulmate AU where your soulmark is grey and the shape of where your soulmate first touches you, and when they do your soulmark gets colour! Credit to the original idea, I can't for the life of me remember where I saw this but love to them!12/7/18 This story will no longer be continued.





	1. Chapter 1

Davey didn't play much sport, but he needed the exercise, so he offered to be a linesman for his school games. Running up and down kept him in shape, and also meant he got a pretty good view of the game, eye always on the ball. But it also meant that sometimes he got into a tumble if players rocketed off the pitch and he didn't get out of the way in time.  
  
Such as this time - he didn't manage to sidestep the barrelling players, and got an elbow to the stomach for his trouble as he toppled backwards, left arm wrapping around Jack Kelly's shoulder and right arm scrabbling for a hold around his collarbone, but to no avail; he was squashed underneath two hefty players, and he was sure Sarah was taking many, many photos of this.   
  
"Getting off me would be much appreciated," he grunted, pushing up at Jack and the guy from the opposing team.  
  
Tonight wasn't a big game, exactly, but it was still one Jack didn't want to mess up. And then he got tackled off the field and into the linesman from their school. Oh, that was just great. He elbowed the other guy off of them and rolled off himself, laying on the ground for a second. Well that had kind of hurt, and he was pretty sure that he'd hurt something at least a little.   
  
"Sorry it took so long," he grumbled, glancing over at the other boy. The one from the other team was already back on his feet and brushing himself off with a frown. Clearly he wasn't any happier about their little spill than Jack and Davey were, though he was unhurt. Spot had been one of the nearest on the field, and he came over to help Jack up, frowning as his teammate favoured one foot.   
  
"It'll be fine, I can walk it off," he insisted, swatting at Spot's hand. His friend completely ignored him aside from a roll of his eyes. Actually, it sort of felt like he'd twisted his ankle, but there was no reason for him to say that and get himself puled from the team... assuming that he could fake not being hurt long enough to finish the next play.  
  
clambered laboriously to his feet, wincing as he had to tense his core to do so - that elbow would bruise. Horribly. He was lucky he wasn't retching, but it seemed to only have hit muscle. "'S okay," he grunted in Kelly's direction, even though it hurt, but it wasn't like there was anything he could do about it. The ref jogged over to check he was alright, and he waved it off, so neither of the players got a reprimand except a word to be more careful.  
  
The rest of the game passed mostly without a hitch, though his bruised abdomen was starting to twinge at every step he took at a run, but he pushed through it, it wasn't a significant injury.  
  
He used the same changing room as his team, but unlike the boys, he didn't linger long. He pulled his shirt off and poked at his stomach, wincing a little. A ripe purple bruising was starting to rise across his abdomen, centring itself in the middle of his dark grey splodge of a soulmark. He rolled his eyes a little, then tugged on the rest of his home clothes, and scarpered before the team got out of the showers; he'd shower at home.  
  
He met Les and Sarah outside the changing rooms, accompanying Katherine, who evidently wanted to get a scoop from the victorious players. "Well played," his sister teased, and he just swatted at her, shouldering his kit bag. "Les, you comin?"  
"He's staying to talk to Jack," Sarah supplied for him. "Don't you want to stay and talk to Jack?" she teased, fully aware of his crush.   
"No," Davey grumbled, swatting at her. "I'm going to go and see if I can get some of the bruising down on my stomach. It's already purple." He ignored her snort of derision and stalked off on his way home.  
  
Jack ended up getting sidelined, of course, but they won the game anyway. He joined his teammates in the changing rooms, discussing the game with them. They'd teased him about some weird bruising that looked like it was starting to form on his shoulders and chest, but it didn't hurt yet, although he didn't exactly poke at it. Well, he'd see later, even if he didn't remember really getting hit there. Hell, that kid that had been linesman had probably gotten hit harder than he had, it was just unlucky that he'd banged his ankle up.   
  
Spot and Crutchie flanked him as they left the changing rooms, the three of them still talking about one of the plays. "Well, hello there, Lady Katherine," he said, smirking. She hated the nickname, which was why he always referred to her like that. It wasn't being rude, exactly, just a bit of friendly teasing. She usually found something equally annoying to call him.  
  
"Jack Sprat," Katherine returned with a raised eyebrow, then clicked on her reporter's microphone. "Jack Kelly, Sean Conlon, Charlie Morris, can I get your opinions on how the game went? Jack, that looked like a pretty nasty tumble with the linesman-" she broke off to shush Sarah as she snorted. "And then you were sidelined. How do you think that affected the rest of the team's playing? Do you think they played as well as they could have?" The questions were endless, barely giving the boys time to answer before she rattled off another.  
  
Eventually, when Katherine seemed to have got enough information to fill the entire newspaper as opposed to just a small article about it, Les piped up. "Hi Jack!" he grinned, looking up to the (way) taller boy. "You played great today! I think the best bit was when you tackled Davey off the sideline," he enthused happily.  
  
Sarah patted his shoulder and looked at him in concern. "You look like you've take quite a hit to your shoulders, Jack. You should probably get that iced up. Make sure he does it, okay, Crutchie?"  
  
"Well, naturally, Katherine, I'm the best damn thing to ever happen to this team," Jack said seriously, elbowing Crutchie when the other boy laughed. "But my boys play well no matter what. There's a reason we always win, totally unrelated to our amazing good looks." Of course, there was no shortage of hubris when the bunch of them were talking about their game, but eventually they settled down enough to really answer her questions rather than just fooling around.   
  
"You think so, buddy?" he asked Les, smiling at his enthusiasm. "Tell ya a secret. I think the best bit was when I tackled Davey too." He was totally joking, of course, since he'd sometimes been known to do that.   
  
He rolled his eyes at Sarah's concern for him. "Yes, mom, I'm absolutely fine. Don't worry." And then she told Crutchie to take care of him, which was just totally unfair, because he was definitely the mom friend of their little team. "Oh, c'mon, Sarah, he'll never let up now. You've encouraged him."   
  
Crutchie, meanwhile, was clearly taking her orders to heart. "Of course I will. Hear that, Jack, I've got 'encouragement'."  
  
Les grinned up at Jack, bundled up in every item of clothing he owned with the team's colours on (it was quite a substantial amount). "You do?" he beamed. "It was Sarah's favourite part too! She was taking pictures!" He tugged on his sister's arm to try to get her to show Jack the pictures. "Saz, c'mon!" he whined as she refused on principle, telling him to stop whining. He reluctantly did so, and pulled out the puppy dog eyes. She sighed in exasperation, and brought up the photos for Jack to see, Les cackling in the background; he'd seen the photos over and over, a series of stills that clearly indicated his pain at the elbow in his stomach, his disgust as he had to get to his feet on his own as Spot helped Jack and the other player was also helped by a teammate, and his glare at Sarah as he obviously noticed her taking photos. "He looks so funny!" Les giggled uncontrollably as Sarah put her phone away.  
  
Sarah, however, showed no remorse as Crutchie agreed. "Well, you need someone to look after you, you're not doing it yourself, evidently. And Crutchie doesn't mind, do you, Crutchie?" She smiled sweetly at Jack, then tugged at Les. "Come on, Les, we'd best go make sure Davey's alive. And I promised to cook tonight, didn't I?"   
He looked up at her with bright eyes. "Potato smiles?"  
"Potato smiles," she chuckled softly, and shooed him ahead of her. "Well played, again, Jack. It was a good win."  
  
Jack laughed at the mention of pictures. "Yeah? Let's see." He was sure it was horribly undignified on all accounts but there was no reason to not take a look. And they were certainly worth looking at, there was no denying that. He laughed along with Les, especially when Davey started glaring at the camera for her taking photos.   
  
"I am too doing it myself," he protested.   
"No you're not," Crutchie said immediately. "I had to remind you to eat breakfast a few days ago, and you didn't even have time, you just grabbed a couple pop-tarts."  
"Only once or twice," he grumbled.   
"This week," Spot grumbled.   
  
They talked a bit more, Jack teasing them about making sure Davey had survived. The three teammates discussed going out to eat somewhere with the rest of the team, but Jack begged off, deciding to go home instead. Crutchie teased him about it but promised to bring him something back, which was good enough.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Davey is a tease.

Davey stayed pretty quiet for the rest of the week, in fact, he kept his head down at every opportunity. Sarah had caught him fresh out of the shower on Sunday, and gasped at the still-vibrant blue-purple of what looked to still be the bruise from the last game, looking a few hours fresh when in fact it was days old. And then he'd had to awkwardly explain that the bruise had overlapped his grey soulmark identically, and that he had healed almost fully from the bruising incident. She'd clocked not soon after, and then understood what that meant, but he'd stopped her before she'd explicitly said 'Jack is your soulmate'. He hadn't said that to himself, yet. He'd pleaded with her not to tell Jack himself, which had landed him in this predicament.  
  
Sarah hadn't been able to come to this match, so he'd had to take Les, but Les took way too long. That meant he was now in the changing room later than he wanted to, and the rest of the linesmen and the home team were in there. He'd just pulled his shirt hastily over his head when he heard someone calling his name, and he turned to face whoever it was, freezing up when he faced Jack. It took a few moments before he realised his soulmark was still visible, dark blue in stark contrast to his pale skin, and he yanked down his shirt fully, trying to find his voice. "Yeah?" he croaked.  
  
Jack had refused to use his crutches once he was able to put weight on his leg, annoyed with what a hassle they made everything. But his coach still hadn't let him back on the field, because of course not, and he'd been stuck as little more than a team mascot. That didn't stop him from being enthusiastic, however, and they pulled of another successful win... which helped distract him from the orangey-red soulmark that had settled across his shoulder and collarbone and had refused to leave. Crutchie knew, because of course he did, but Jack had refused to face facts. He was in physical contact with a lot of people every day, there was no need to assume that it was that linesman. Just because it was the most recent and prominent memory didn't mean it was him.   
  
So when he saw Davey in the locker room, he decided he might as well say hi to the guy. Ask him how he was doing, and if he didn't mention his soulmark (because why wouldn't he?) then Jack could put it firmly out of his mind. But that plan went out the window the second he saw Davey's chest and the blue mark there. Oh. Oh shit. He didn't answer him for a second, mind in a brief reboot cycle as he probably looked like an idiot.   
  
"Uh, just wanted to say hi. And ask how you were doing after, um, getting hit. That bruise looks pretty fresh, did you get hurt again?" It had to be a bruise, he'd only gotten a quick look at it, chances were it could be...  
  
Davey stood uncomfortably while Jack looked at him, tugging self-consciously at the hem of his shirt, tugging it further and further down, like doing that would somehow erase what Jack had undoubtedly seen. And then Jack spoke, and he just assumed it was a mindblank that had caused the staring, he'd done that often enough.  
  
"Oh! Yeah, thanks, I'm doing fine, thanks. It's pretty much healed now," he murmured. He laughed awkwardly, still tugging at his shirt. "I, uh, no. I didn't get hurt again. It's, uh," he cleared his throat, voice dropping to an embarrassed mumble. "It's kind of my soulmark?" He was staring at the floor but glanced up to see Jack's reaction.  
  
"Oh. Good. That's, uh, that's good. 'M sorry I ran into you." It was a little late to be saying sorry, but oh well. Jack was usually a little soother and better spoken than this, but... Evidently finding out that he might have a soulmate was just a bit of a shock and sort of made him tongue-tied. And it was a beautiful guy, which just might cause a couple of problems with other people. But if they were soulmates, if they were really meant to be together, then, well, they'd just have to get over it all.   
  
His mind went a bit blank again when Davey said he hadn't gotten hurt again, and then completely offline with his next sentence. "Oh. Um. Nice. That's, that's really nice. She must be a really pretty girl." There was no way that Davey was gay, that he'd fall for someone like him instead of going for a girl who was beautiful and popular. After all, what was the chance that someone as perfect as Davey would want to know him? Just because he'd gotten his own soulmark didn't mean anything.  
  
Davey shrugged. "Hey, no, my bad. I didn't get out of the way enough. But I broke most of your fall, right? Sorry I didn't catch your ankle too, I was a bit busy with your elbow." He teased lightly, unsure of the response it would bring from Jack.   
  
He couldn't help but splutter a bit at Jack's next statement, though. "Well, I'll tell you two things about them," he replied honestly, managing to stop pulling on the hem of his shirt. "One, they're very pretty indeed, and two, they're not female." He turned behind to grab his whistle and flag, then flashed a grin over his shoulder at Jack. "It's no real secret I'm gay, Jack. I just hope he's okay with that. Because I've liked him for a while." And with that, he jogged out onto the pitch.  
  
Jack chuckled at the joke Davey made, nodding a little. "We should've been watching where we were going more, really, but so long as nobody really got hurt." He himself clearly didn't count in that estimate, but then again, his injuries hadn't been serious. He would be out for a couple of games, but that was it, and it could have been much worse. Overall, he'd gotten lucky with just a hurt ankle, and at least he still got to come out to watch the team play and support them.   
  
"Yeah?" he asked, almost breathlessly, at Davey saying he'd tell him about his soulmate. The first thing told him nothing but the second was very suggestive. Or at least he hoped so. And then Davey smiled at him over his shoulder and Jack swore he'd never seen anything like that grin in his life. "Cause you've- hey! Hey, Davey, get back here, that ain't fair!" Swearing under his breath at the possibility and the teasing, he set off after him, determined to track him down before he actually got out onto the field far enough that Jack couldn't drag him back into the changing room to talk with him so more.  
  
Davey's day brightened even more as Jack shouted after him, presumably trying to pursue him as well. Maybe he would be interested after all? But he didn't let Jack catch him, jogging out to assume his position on the line, flag in hand.  
  
As soon as Jack emerged from the changing rooms, Les was on him like a cat on catnip. "Jack!" he yelled enthusiastically, bounding over from his seat and latching onto his arm. "Jack, come sit with me and watch! Jack!" He pulled out his puppy dog eyes, tugging on his sleeve. "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?"  
  
Unfortunately for Jack, there were two problems with his plan to track Davey down and get better answers. For one, the person himself was already out on the field. And second, Les was clearly wanting to cling to him as long as he was within the boy's view. Jack hesitated, almost wanting to walk right out onto the field and screw up the game just to have his talk, but gave in after a minute. As long as he was with Les, Davey would have to show up eventually.   
  
He sat down next to Les, paying much less attention to him than was usual. Instead he watched Davey's every move, still with a slightly stunned expression as he tried to figure things out. Finding out you had a soulmate was pretty unusual, a once in a lifetime thing, really. Jack just had to figure out how to talk to the guy... and how he felt about his soulmate being a guy... and if this meant he had to face facts about himself being gay... and whether or not he had to tell his parents and his friends and his teammates.


End file.
